LOOKING BACK ON NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FROM 2018- SUCCESS OR FAILURE?

Who’s EXCITED for the New Year?! I’ll tell you- I’m very much looking forward to 2019! I’m gonna be brutally honest- 2018 has been a weird year for me. Not looking to get all “it was the best of times it was the worst of times…” but it had its ups and downs. Even with a few knocks though, I’m still standing 😉 (*resisting the urge to burst into song*) I’m gonna fight fight fight fight fight for this blog and all that jazz (resistance is futile)- so let’s see if I can’t kick the butt of some resolutions from 2018:

BOOKISH:

10 MORE BOOKS FROM MY CHALLENGING LIST

Whoa let’s start with a hard one why don’t we? I didn’t complete this, but I did okay on this one and I’m glad I read what I did read.

8 points

10 NON-FICTION READS

Again, I didn’t make it to 10, but I did alright. Considering this overlaps a lot with #1, it makes sense.

8 points

DELAY PUTTING A GOODREADS CHALLENGE ON

Well I did do this- I only used the challenge in December to get my stats- so ten points to Ravenclaw! In all seriousness, I don’t know how good this resolution was cos I ended up just counting in my head anyway… so yeah, I did it, and it relieved some of the stress that comes with book counting, but not all of it. Whatever, still did it 😉

10 points

5 REREADS

TRY AND BE MORE ORGANISED WITH READING PLANS

You know, like have some sort of TBR. It doesn’t have to be official (let’s face it, it won’t be in posts cos *laziness*) still I should at least try to be a bit more organised. Especially since I’ve had a couple of ARCs in particular that I want to read and okay, I’ve been in a slump for a month, but I still feel bad about it and LET’S GET ON WITH IT already!(Immediately after writing this, I scribbled down a list for January… so can I already count this as a success please?)

I struck this one off the list in March– so I’m not counting it. Which is good- cos I didn’t keep to TBRs this year.

TRY TO STOP READING BOOKS YOU KNOW YOU WON’T LIKE

Gosh this was a good resolution to do- cos this is a terrible habit! Unfortunately I read a few books I knew I’d hate:

So that means out of 5 points, I only got…

2 points

NON BOOKISH:

FINISH COMPILING NOTES FROM NOTEBOOKS

I did this super early in the year that I’ve now got more notebooks to compile lol. Regardless, I’m happy I did this one and I don’t have nearly as much of a backlog as I used to:

10 points

FINISH THAT AWFUL GUITAR FOR DUMMIES BOOK

Yeesh- this. did. not. go. well. To be honest, I don’t think it was the best resolution- if you put “awful” in the resolution, it’s hardly likely you’ll follow through. I also think progress in this area doesn’t really work with chapters. I did actually work on this for four months, however didn’t get far in terms of chapters and had to stop when I went away. I did want to pick this up again- just haven’t had the time! Anyhoo, *excuses excuses*, I’m giving myself a point for those few months of effort.

1 point

MUMBLE BUMBLE SOMETHING ABOUT FRENCH…

Wowee another one that didn’t go well. I think this was also a poorly chosen resolution because HOW DO YOU MEASURE THIS. I did a few things- like reading a book, watching a movie, talking to people- so I’m giving myself a point for each of these (though I’m not sure it’s deserved- this is the problem with not defining what a success would look like!!! Next time I’ll have to pick something I can actually measure).

3 points

And for personal goals (incidentally one of which was not-so-personal and just related to my #supersecretive WIP and I talked about it here)… I actually did all of these- but not necessarily to the best of my ability, so I docked some marks:

27 points

74 points total- which in grading terms works out as a…

Well what do you think? Have I been to generous or too harsh with my grading? And how have you done with your resolutions this year? Let me know in the comments!

65 thoughts on “LOOKING BACK ON NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FROM 2018- SUCCESS OR FAILURE?”

I’m just about to complete my new year’s resolution of 2015; to read all the books that are figuring in the top 100 canon of the world literature. The only book to finish is “The Master and Margarita” by Bulgakov (I’m around page 50). Next resolution is to bring to an end the third part of my own writing project; The Maharajagar.

🙂 another brilliant post- so cool to see how you did with your resolutions… I wonder is this why my life is so directionless because I don’t set any resolutions? hmm.. I still have about 2 hours 50 minutes to list the resolutions before the start of 2019! best get to it! XD
Happy New Year! 🙂

This is why I don’t make resolutions. They’re either vague enough (so as to not stress me out) and then I can’t figure out if I completed it or not, or I’m superspecific and then quit while throwing a 5yearold temper tantrum.

Overlooking the C, it’s definitely a pass! And above 50, so I’d count that as real good *winks* One of my resolutions was to write more, and I’d say I’ve done that for… about 58/100… I’ll have to work on that!

I had to read the last six parts of “In Search of Lost Time” by Marcel Proust in French because on Gutenberg they only had the first part available in English (Swan’s Way). It was a grueling experience. French is definitively the most difficult language I’ve ever learned and if it can be some consolation; French literature is always a little bit of a challenge – even the Little Prince – that is very often considered as a children’s book. But so are the Harry Potter books.

Happy new year!
That’s a very respectable pile of notes! 😀
I can get behind your point on not reading books you know you won’t like…. i got some books last year just cuz others seemed to like it a lot even though i had my doubts. That said, i haven’t read them yet, so not all is lost just yet 😀

Hehe! I think New Year’s resolutions are made to be broken. 😉 And you did awesomely well with yours! I also wanted to read more non-fiction books – let’s just say that point could do with some improvement. 😉 And I totally know what you mean about reading/speaking more French – I’ve been working my way through Th Hunger Games in French for the past 4 months now – lol! 😁

Well shucks, that’s some nice goals that have been successful beat! It’s nice that it wasn’t a complete flop though. I am now curious to see what kind of resolutions you’ll be giving yourself now that you’re a year wiser! 😉

Happy New Year! Hope you’ll be having a beautiful year filled with great books and happy moments! 😀

Considering your ridiculously difficult goals I think you’ve done really well. I look forwards to more overly ambitious goal setting in 2019! Bonne annee! (I’m using a new laptop and haven’t worked out how to do accents lol)

I love how you’ve scored your resolutions (whether you succeeded or failed on them) and I think at the end of the day a C is a very good score overall. 🙂 You did better than I would have if I’d scored mine (I’m thinking I’d have gotten a D, or maybe even an E if I was being really harsh). Not reading books I now I won’t like is one I should try for this year actually. I never want to DNF books because I keep thinking “what if they get better?!” but they never do and there are too many books I know I’ll love out there for my to waste time reading books I don’t enjoy.
I think you can definitely count 2018 as a success, hopefully it’ll be the same story with 2019 too. 🙂 ❤

hehe thank you! Glad you liked that 😉 I was pretty pleased with that all things considered 😉 haha! Ah I really relate to you there- I always struggle to DNF books too!
Thanks so much!! Hope you have an incredible reading year (and year in general 😉 ) as well! 🙂 ❤

It’s that hope that it could get better, and that if it does I don’t want to miss out, that I can’t get past. Gotta try though, if I’m thinking of DNF-ing a book it likely won’t get better.
That’s all right, and thanks. 🙂 ❤